Major
Executive Speeches

Robert
S. Mueller, III, Director, FBI
National Conference of the National Historically
Black Colleges and Universities Conference
Arlington, VA
September 17, 2002

Thank
you, Joyce. Good morning everyone. It's
great to be here. I guess you get two
Directors for the price of one today.
Director James, it's good to see you.

Back in June, we invited Ambassador Spearman
and his staff over to my office to talk
about ways that we could help each other
out and build on our partnership. We discussed
a number of different ideas, and one of
the things the Ambassador suggested was,
"Why don't come speak at our national
conference?" I thought that was a
great idea, and I appreciate the offer
and the opportunity to talk with all of
you today.

I come with good news. The FBI is hiring.
I guess you could say it's a bull market
for jobs in the Bureau. We're looking
to fill about 1,800 jobs over the next
twelve months. We'd love to be able to
fill those jobs with your best and brightest.
But we need your help.

Let me tell you why. First, as we all
know, September 11 changed the nation's
and the FBI's priorities in a profound
way. To meet the challenge, we have restructured
and re-engineered the Bureau from top
to bottom so that we are more predictive
and preventative. And now we need specific
talents and expertise from outside the
Bureau to strengthen our capabilities.

For example, we have a critical need for
more Special Agents with strong scientific
and technical backgrounds. We need engineers.
We need biologists and chemists. We need
computer scientists. We are also looking
for individuals who are fluent in any
number of languages, from Spanish to Chinese
Mandarin to some of the languages common
to the Middle East. And we need people
with critical thinking skills, who can
do the kind of in-depth research and analysis
that is so important to our intelligence
work today. We know these talents are
out there in your universities. But we
need your help in bringing our needs and
opportunities to the forefront of the
minds of your students and graduates.

Second, we want more diversity in the
FBI. The fact is, we need it and place
the highest value on it. Why? Because
it is absolutely vital to getting the
job done for our country. As you all know,
the face of America is wonderfully multiracial
and multiethnic -- our great strength
as a nation -- and it is growing more
so all the time. And as Yogi Berra might
say, "the world has gone global."
With the Internet, we are never more than
a mouse click away. Most businesses now
cater to an international market. Kids
in Japan and Casablanca and most everywhere
else wear blue jeans and go to McDonald's.

All of this has had a profound impact
on the work of the FBI. We deal every
day with a more diverse population and
a more complex range of cultures. Hackers
break into computer networks half a world
away. International crime rings sow discord
across borders. Terrorists spend years
overseas planning their attacks, then
carry them out on American soil, as we
saw so tragically on September 11.

The reality is, to be effective, we have
to look like America. We have to understand
and reflect the communities we serve.
And we must be global in our reach. We
have Agents stationed in 44 cities around
the world. Not just in western countries
like France and Canada and England. But
also in Singapore, Egypt, Pakistan, Colombia,
Nigeria, and most recently, China. This
means, of course, that we have to be comfortable
in virtually every culture. We have to
be fluent in any number of different languages.
We have to be able to connect with our
many international colleagues so that
we can enlist their aid in tracking down
fugitives and other criminals outside
our borders.

Recognizing this, we have redoubled our
efforts in recent years to reach your
universities specifically and African
Americans and minorities in general. We
have sent recruiters and minority Agents
and alumni to your campuses and career
fairs. We have gone to conferences held
by organizations like the NAACP, Blacks
in Government, and the National Organization
of Black Law Enforcement Executives. We
have attended events like the Annual Black
College Spring Break Career Fair and the
Annual Women of Color Awards Conference.
We have advertised heavily in minority
newspapers and magazines, trade journals,
and the like. We have asked graduates
of our Citizens' Academies -- which give
community leaders an inside look into
the FBI -- to help us identify minority
talent. Sometimes, we recruit the graduates
themselves. More recently, we started
a pilot project with three universities
-- including Clark University in Atlanta
and Morgan State University in Baltimore
-- to have marketing students help develop
minority recruiting plans for the FBI.

Because of these and other efforts, we
have received national recognition from
a number of publications as a top government
agency for minorities and women to work
for today. Equal Opportunity Magazine
recently ranked us number one.

Despite all this, we are not getting the
results we want, especially when it comes
to hiring Special Agents. So that is why
we very much need your help. You have
access to a rich pool of talent. Your
students and alumni respect you. They
are looking to you for advice and counsel.
And among your networks of friends and
colleagues, you might know someone who
is looking for a career change, who might
want to put his or her talents to work
serving the country. You might be that
person yourself. So that is why we are
asking you -- as Americans, as leaders
in education and in our country -- to
work with us in helping to bring new and
diverse talent into the FBI.

Now, let me get specific about the kinds
of opportunities we offer. We think we
have some strong selling points. For starters,
as I said earlier, we are hiring. No,
we can't offer stock options or bonuses.
But we pay our people well. Our new Agents,
for example, start at close to $60,000.
Within five years, they will earn upwards
of $80,000 -- even more if they are promoted.
And these are steady jobs. They are not
going to disappear if the economy takes
a turn for the worse. Plus, our employees
tend to love their jobs and stay in them.
The FBI magazine catalogs hundreds of
20, 25, and 30 year anniversaries every
month.

We have made the process of applying to
the Bureau easier than ever. In February,
we began allowing online applications
at our web site. In the past six months,
we received 60,000 applications, more
than in the past five years combined.
Today, we have a separate dedicated web
site for this purpose. It lists all of
our vacancies and has a wealth of information
on jobs and opportunities. The address
for the site is: www.fbijobs.com.

If you go to that site, you will see that
there are an abundance of opportunities
in the Bureau. Many people, when they
think of the FBI, picture the traditional
Agent with a gun on the hip. They may
remember, as I do, Efrem Zembalist Jr.
They might think of Agents Mulder and
Scully. But today, there is really no
such thing as a typical Agent or a typical
FBI employee, because the work we do and
the people we employ really covers a wide
spectrum.

I think most people know that the FBI
tracks down some of America's most dangerous
criminals -- spies, terrorists, serial
killers, mobsters, and international drug
lords. But they may not know this. We
also protect the environment by investigating
individuals and companies who pollute
our air and dirty our waters. We help
consumers and the economy by breaking
up price fixing schemes and exposing major
white collar frauds. We protect Native
Americans and the lands they live on from
crime and corruption. We uphold civil
rights by working with state and local
partners to investigate hate crimes. We
also provide world-class training and
forensic and high-tech services to our
partners in state, local, and even international
law enforcement.

It takes a world of talent to make it
all work. We employ everyone from pilots
to paralegals to photographers. Look at
our payroll and you will find social workers,
linguists, security officers, information
technology professionals, fingerprint
experts, even dentists.

Let me mention an FBI initiative that
may be of special interest to your students.
It is called the Honors Intern Program.
Each year, we bring in around 50 outstanding
college students from around the country
to be interns at FBI Headquarters. They
get top secret clearances and work in
some high profile areas like counterterrorism,
counterintelligence, and cyber crime.
They get a rare view of the inner workings
of the FBI. Yes, it is a highly competitive
program. But wouldn't it be worth having
one of the fifty students come from your
college or university? I hope you will
work with us to bring this program to
their attention. It could be a great stepping
stone and a fascinating experience for
them.

Let me also say a few words about becoming
an Agent. There is a general misconception
out there that you need to be part of
the legal profession or law enforcement
to be a Special Agent. We do hire our
fair share of lawyers and police professionals.
But that is not a requirement. As I said
earlier, we are looking for a range of
skills today. We need computer experts
who can do data mining and help us track
criminals through cyber space. We need
world-class scientists who can help us
unravel the mysteries of complex and powerful
biological agents like anthrax. In short,
we are looking for twenty-first century
skills, cutting edge skills, in some exciting
new fields.

And please remember that we do not typically
hire Agents right out of college. We want
individuals who have at least three years
of work experience and the judgment and
maturity that come with it. What we suggest
to interested candidates is that they
pick a field that is most interesting
to them, get their degrees and their experience,
and then come to us and see what opportunities
are available. In some cases, the road
to the FBI is a long one. It certainly
was for me. But it is worth the time and
effort to be ready to assume the awesome
responsibilities that come with the job.

And I can tell you that the responsibilities
are awesome. We are talking about the
highest level of public service -- work
that is incredibly important to the security
of the country and to the safety of all
Americans. For that reason, there is a
sense of pride and a spirit of sacrifice
in the FBI that goes far beyond what you
will find in most careers.

In the past year, many talented Americans
have felt called to join us at this critical
time in history. They include professionals
with multiple degrees. Individuals who
can speak four or five different languages.
Executives from corporate America who
are willing to take pay cuts of $30,000,
$40,000, and even $50,000 to come work
for the FBI.

One of the rosters of new Agents that
I looked at recently included a nuclear
submarine engineer, several high-ranking
military officers, a school principal,
and financial analysts from places like
Banc America and Goldman Sachs. One individual
was a certified systems engineer, a former
federal agent, a merchant marine officer,
and an explosives expert all rolled into
one. We even had a former grand prix racer,
who I guess is going to be pretty good
in car chases.

They are all here because they know this
is an organization worth being a part
of. And we are convinced that there are
many more Americans, including the students
and graduates of your colleges and universities,
who would want to join us if they only
knew more about the FBI and the opportunities
we offer.

So I ask you to help us reach out to these
individuals. Talk with them about some
of the opportunities I described today.
Direct them to our web site. Urge them
to apply for our Honors Intern Program.
Contact colleagues who may want to take
their lives in a different direction.
Believe me, we would appreciate anything
you could do. It will make a difference
not just to the FBI, but to you, your
institutions, and your graduates -- and
most importantly, to our country.

I want to close with this thought. As
we all know, there exists in America today
a fair measure of cynicism towards our
government. And clearly, our government
is always in need of change and improvement.
But I can tell you -- as anyone who works
for the FBI can tell you -- that there
is something very satisfying about working
for a larger cause. There is something
very satisfying about being able to go
home at the end of the day, knowing you
have served your country and helped save
lives.

So what I would say to your students is
this. You can make America a better place
in any number of ways, but we are offering
the chance to do it from the inside, from
the place where critical decisions are
made and the difficult work is done. If
you want to help make this country safe
and strong, if you want to help ensure
liberty and justice for all, then join
us. The FBI could use your perspectives,
your talents, and your commitment. And
so could America.